Egg in Your Beer

Everybody talked about the way some outstanding freshman players never went out for varsity football, but nobody ever did anything about it. Not, that is, until Bob Margarita installed the four platoon system.

For at least the past few years, a lot of fairly good freshman players have pulled a disappearing act in their sophomore year, and large gaps in the varsity through graduation have been left gaping. But for 1951 a new order--or an old one with new switches--has been established under the direction of freshman coach Margarita, former head coach at Georgetown.

The purpose--to keep up freshman interest in the game, as well as to condition and train the first-year men for futures with the varsity. The method--to keep all the Yardlings, almost every man of the 90-odd on the squad, in constant action throughout the season.

And the system goes into operation tomorrow, when Margarita takes four full platoons to Andover for the freshman opener. He may or may not use one team in each of the four quarters (as has been suggested), but all of the men, according to plans, will get into the game. At the same time, the rest of the squad, tentatively the "B" team, will employ much the same system in a game at Noble and Greenough.

"I've got two objectives as freshman coach." Margarita explains, "and the winning of games is really a secondary objective. Keeping the boys in athletics--by letting them all participate--is the more important job."

"For example, the other day we had 97 boys out for practice, and held a 40 minute scrimmage. In that time we ran off 44 plays, with all 97 players participating."

No One Cut

The slight and young coach admits he has no idea as yet who will eventually make up his first team. But he stresses the fact that, even when this team is formed and sees a little more action than the other players, every game--win or lose--will be experimental. "No one will be cut from this year's freshman squad," he says. "No one."

"We'll probably wind up with eight full teams," he continues, "half 'A' squad and half 'B'. The A's have a regular schedule to play, and I've been trying to arrange games for the B's with local high school teams. Everybody plays."

And so everybody does, while statistics-keepers and sports scribes go berserk in the stands, and Margarita introduces Harvard '55 to the double four platoon system and substitutions incredibly unlimited.